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Friday, Nov 13–Locally Produced Crackers a Big Hit on National Stage

OCEAN CITY- What’s being called the world’s most addictive cracker found its way to the country’s biggest morning television show this week, even if it was only for a few short minutes.

Little Ragghi’s Crackers, a locally created and produced artisan flatbread cracker that has seemingly sparked nationwide interest and critical acclaim in the gourmet food industry in just six months of existence, caught the attention of the producers of the “Today Show,” and were one of five products chosen to be featured on live national television Monday morning to roughly 4 million viewers.

Just before 10 a.m. on Monday, the crackers were shown and got some face time to the nation, but as Little Ragghi’s co-owner Guy Bayshore said, they didn’t quite get as much time on camera as he would have hoped.

“They were literally running out of time on the segment, and though we got a mention, we unfortunately didn’t get our website put up on the screen like a few of the other products before us,” said Bayshore. “Obviously, we are thrilled to be on the ‘Today Show’ and the producers were very nice and told us that they loved the product and regretted running out of time.”

Bayshore has been hustling to get these crackers to the top levels of the specialty foods industry in just a mere six months. Alongside creator and namesake Raggatha “Little Ragghi” Calentine, Bayshore has placed these crackers in major food stores, distributors, wholesalers, chains, and brokers in 38 of the 50 states.

Yet, Bayshore said that the “Today Show” was a total bonus, as the product caught the eye of famous celebrity chef Giada Delaurentiis, who was at a food show in Washington D.C. with “Today Show” producers in search of a few standout products to bring on-air.

“They came up, tasted the cracker, said they loved it, and then came back later and tried it another two times, before telling us that we were going to be on the show,” said Bayshore. “Apparently, their train got delayed going back to New York and they sat and enjoyed a bag of Little Ragghi’s Crackers while they waited.”

The story of these little crackers and the obvious taste of them have made them what some in the industry are calling “the hottest product in brokers hands in a decade,” according to Bayshore.

“It’s taken a lot of hard work to get it to this point,” he said. “Sometimes, I’m working on this for 20 hours a day, but I know that it’s already taking off, and I honestly feel like it’s about to explode in the next few months.”

Bayshore has gotten the product noticed at the Fancy Food Show in New York, and the crackers were considered a standout product in that show that featured over 200,000 products.

In addition, Bayshore says that the crackers have been popping up in stores in Napa Valley, to Dean and DeLuca stores in New York City, to the huge Texas Chain Central Markets.

“We really can’t believe everywhere that we have gone in such a short amount of time,” said Bayshore. “It really is quite amazing and almost mind boggling.”

“Little Ragghi” is extremely gentle in nature, and admittedly quite shy as she seemed pleased but generally un-phased by the early rise of her creation, citing that she is doing all of the hard work for Native American children (which a portion of all the profits go to the charity of her choice, the National Native American Family Camp.)

“I think that it’s great what’s been happening, and we may have to get a bigger factory to make the crackers in, which will make me sad because I pray over these crackers and I pray for the people that buy them, and for the people that the money is going to help in the charity,” said Calentine, “I just hope I can still do that wherever this goes.”